Testimonials

Here you will find some of our clients from which we have provided our liquid deicers to for helping them fight mother nature’s winter on slot of ice and snow. Please take a moment and watch or read what they had to say about our products and how they helped them through those harsh winter battles.

Mark Stockman

Job Title Street & Transportation Superintendent

Company City of Rockford, IL

I was approached by SFG earlier this fall regarding a new anti-icing blend called Husker Plus™. It was touted to have qualities that would make it outperform other blends when used either for anti-icing or pre-wetting road salt at the spreader. Apparently this product tested well enough to have been endorsed by the Northwest Snowfighters Assn. as well. For these reasons and the excellent customer service SFG has provided the City of Rockford over the past two years, the decision was made to utilize and assess this product during the 2016/2017 snow season. 

The City of Rockford was subject to 3 major and one minor snowstorm in December 2016 and by my observation Husker Plus did in fact outperform all of the other blends the City had used in the past including those previously purchased from SFG. It activated more quickly and had better residual characteristics which allowed us to use less salt than we had in the past for similar storms under the same temperature conditions. The City of Rockford also uses this same product for anti-icing on bridges and overpasses and have not had one report of a vehicle accident due to frost or ice in between snowstorms.

In summary, I would recommend this product for either application (anti-icing or de-icing). The minimal additional cost over other lessor expensive blends has proven worth it in our operational needs. Any community whose citizens and elected officials demand an increased level of service for de-icing or anti-icing would benefit from this product.

Chad Brayton

Job Title Vice President, Sales & Operations

Company Speck USA

A very important client, whom we provide snow removal for, requested the use of beet salt. After some research, I stumbled upon Smith Fertilizer and Grain. I'm glad I did. Not familiar with this product, Smith Fertilizer and Grain was extremely helpful, sincere and realistic. And, not only was the customer service outstanding, but the product works excellent! I have a very happy customer and so does Smith Fertilizer and Grain.

Chad Courtois

Job Title Street Maintenance Superintendent

Company City of Olathe, Kansas

At City of Olathe we pretreat all our salt with beet concentrate. 6 gallons a ton of 60/40 beet/ brine mix. The main benefits are the stickiness both holding on the road and applying. It also seems to activate the salt faster if prewet is not available. It definitely helps with loads not freezing up as fast and does not harden up in the stockpiles with less chunks on top of spreaders.

Juneau County Public Works Dept., State Superintendent

Company Juneau County Public Works Dept.

We started, in the last 3 years, adding a blend of 33% BEET 55™ and 67% salt brine, at a rate of 8 gals per ton of salt, in our mixer. There  should not be any salt leave shop for our use dry. I also have a blend of 20% BEET 55™ and 80% Salt brine. I top dress the interstate truck salt as it is applied.

For our Anti-icing operation I use a blend of 5% BEET 55™ and 95% salt brine. We have had great rewards from this program, with the slat use reduced by about  25% for the entire County/State operations.

With the residual carry over, there have been times that we didn't need to go out for minor snow as the ice/snow was melting from the carry over. I have been using BEET 55™ for several years and plan to continue to do so.

The City of Dickinson, City Engineer

Company The City of Dickinson

The City of Dickinson was one of the first entities in North Dakota to begin using brine for direct application to road surfaces. Straight brine is only useful down to a certain temperature, therefore we were not able to utilize it as much as we would have liked to. We lost our source of brine for several years, and our ice control program was not as efficient. About 3 years ago we became aware of the availability of BEET 55™ and decided to give it a try.

The first load was mixed with some remaining brine we had in our tank, which worked well for ice control. We then ordered another load and mixed it with fresh water. This didn’t work as well, but still helped with ice control. The next winter we ordered a mixture of 80% brine and 20% BEET 55™ from Smith Fertilizer and used that product throughout the winter. Last year we were able to install our own brine maker, which makes the use of brine more economical. We mix BEET 55™ with the brine to extend its useful temperature range. We have been experimenting with different concentrations, depending on the weather and temperature conditions.

We received proof of the effectiveness of BEET 55™ last week when one of our loader operators was pushing up snow that had been hauled off the streets.  He noticed a brown liquid coming out of the snow pile, so he dug into the pile at that location and found an area where the snow was melting inside the pile.  This proved that BEET 55™ helps the brine do its job.

We plan on continuing to use BEET 55™ in our ice control program.